The Sacrifice of Suffering

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for
ever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it
is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods,
which have not benefited their adherents. We have an altar from
which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the
high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So
Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the
people through his own blood. Therefore let us go forth to him
outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have
no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come. Through him
then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that
is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to
do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are
pleasing to God.

What we have seen in these verses over the last two weeks is
that the Christian life can be described as three kinds of
sacrifice that we make to God. The first was the sacrifice of
praise which we see in verse 15: "Through him then let us
continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the
fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." The second was the
sacrifice of a shared life which we see in verse 16: "Do not
neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices
are pleasing to God."

Following Jesus to Calvary

The third sacrifice is our focus for today. It's the sacrifice
of suffering, and it's described in verses 13–14: "Therefore let us
go forth to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to
come."

Verse 13 is picking up on verse 12 where it says, "Jesus also
suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through
his own blood."

So Jerusalem is being pictured as the camp of Israel. Jesus was
taken outside the gate, away from the camp, and tortured and killed
on a cross like a common criminal between two thieves. And now this
inspired writer looks at you and me and says, "Let's go . . . let's go
to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured." This is
what it means to be a Christian.

Jesus said this same thing didn't he? In Luke 9:23 he said, "If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will
lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Being
a Christian means following Jesus, and following Jesus means going
with him to Calvary—outside the camp.

Now Jesus made it plain in Luke 21:16 that not all Christians
will die by martyrdom. He said, "Some of you they will put to
death," not "All of you . . . " But all of us must be willing. All of
us must count Christ better than life. All of us must take up our
cross and follow him in the kind of life—the kind of love—that he lived.

Going "Outside the Camp"

And this verse 13 makes explicit something very important for us
today. It says that we should go to Jesus "outside the camp." Now
what does that mean? The writer knows that we don't live in camps
the way the Israelites did. "Outside the camp" stands for
something. What does it stand for?

I think the camp for Israel was the place of safety and
sanctity. Outside the camp there were dangers of wild animals and
dangers of enemies. And outside the camp was where the unclean
animals and refuse were to be buried. So outside the camp there was
potential danger and the risk of uncleanness. The camp was
comfortable and safe and clean and sacred.

So when he says to us, "Let us go forth to him outside the
camp," he probably means, "Let's go outside the place of comfort
and safety and religious sanctuary; and let's join Jesus in the
risky places, the dangerous places, the dirty places."

So if "the sacrifice of praise" represents the priority of
worship in our church, and "the sacrifice of a shared life"
represents the priority of nurture and care and education in our
church, what does this "sacrifice of suffering" represent? It
represents at least the priority of evangelism and world missions.
It represents the priority of resisting the incredible inertia of
comfort and security—of wanting to spend all our time
inside the camp.

But what is outside the camp? Strangness. Uncertainties. Drug
dealers are outside the camp. Pimps and prostitutes are outside the
camp. Unpredictable gangs are outside the camp. Your unbelieving
colleague or neighbor or classmate is outside the camp. Some parts
of the wilderness outside the camp are muddy and steamy, and some
parts of the wilderness outside the camp are tall office buildings
with oak-paneled offices and floor-to-ceiling windows. And outside
the camp are all the unreached peoples of the world.

When God says to us in this text, "Go outside the camp with my
Son to share the abuse he shared," he means, "Let your light so
shine before men"—before lost and needy men outside the
camp, not just in the ease and comfort of your church and your
home. The light should shine in the dark. And it's dark outside the
camp. He means, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."
He means, "You shall be my witnesses not only in the camp of
Jerusalem but in Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of
the world."

Breaking Out of Our Comfortable Camps

The third indispensable priority of Bethlehem Baptist Church
must be to break out of our comfortable camp and move in the world
where it is dark and risky and foreign and uncomfortable and
dangerous. Hebrews 13:13 says very plainly that outside the camp
there is abuse and reproach.

We in America need to learn what Christians in most of the world
can't help but learn, namely, when Jesus calls us to himself, he
calls us to suffer. Romans 8:16–17 says, "The Spirit himself bears
witness that we are the children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with
him."

Paul said to the new churches he was starting (Acts 14:22),
"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom."

And the reason this is so is not just because tribulations often
find us inside the camp, but because being a Christian means going
outside the camp where even more tribulations are. It may mean
choosing places to live, places to work, places to minister, places
to travel, people to help, ministries to do that are not safe from
abuse and reproach.

Examples of Going Outside the Camp

Let me give you several examples.

In some countries in Africa today the AIDS epidemic is
reaching staggering proportions. I was told last week at a missions
conference in Colorado Springs that some cities in Uganda are
simply being wiped out. It's like the bubonic plague in Europe in
the 14th century when some places lost two-thirds of their
population.

In that setting today there are missionaries and missionary
doctors and their families who believe that for them God's call
outside the camp is to stay right there when many Westerners are
fleeing the country.

Another example is the country of Lebanon. I heard again of
Christian professionals and pastors who have the opportunity to
leave that war-torn land but choose to stay there "outside the
camp" in danger of bombing and kidnapping, and with fewer and fewer
provisions and protections. They look at the struggling church
there, many of whom have no chance to leave, and they look at the
tremendous needs, and they say, "This is where I am needed most—outside the camp. This is where Jesus went—and
where he goes today."

Or consider this. I have here a list of the 150 largest
unreached people groups in the world—all having at least
one million people. Virtually all of these groups, with no church
of believers, are found in countries that are resistant or hostile
to Christian missionaries. Do you see what this means? It means
that either the church will be disobedient to the command of Jesus
to disciple all the peoples (Matthew 28:19), or we will go forth
with Jesus outside the camp and bear the abuse he did. The Great
Commission will not be finished without suffering.

The Biblical Way of Thinking

The thought that Christians are only called to live and work
where it is safe is not a biblical thought. Biblical thinking
proceeds on the assumption that we are all called to follow Jesus
outside the camp where there is reproach and danger. It may be the
risk of ostracism and scorn at your work. It may be the risk of egg
on your face at school. It may be the pain of misunderstanding from
an unbelieving relative. Or it may be the far greater risks of
prison and persecution in Colombia or Mindinao.

This way of thinking—this willingness to go outside the
camp of comfort and security—is a very strange mentality.
It's not natural to this world. What is it? Is it naïveté about
what pain and suffering are really like? Is it a kind of
pathological masochism that just wants people to feel sorry for us?
Is it stoical heroics that hopes to be remembered in the hall of
fame? What is this willingness to go outside the camp to Jesus and
bear the abuse he did?

Verse 14 gives the answer. "For here we have no lasting city,
but we seek the city which is to come." Our willingness to live and
work with Jesus outside the camp of comfort and security is not
naïveté. It is not a pathological desire to suffer. It is not
stoical heroics. It is, in fact, an unshakable and happy confidence
that
there is no abiding security and happiness in this world but
only in the next. The pleasures and safety of upscale Minneapolis
and suburbia cannot compare to the pleasures of the New
Jerusalem.

Look at Hebrews 10:34. "For you had compassion on the prisoners,
and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since
you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding
one" (cf. Hebrews 11:2, 26).

It is not only possible to go with Jesus outside the camp; it is
possible to do it WITH joy! Why? Because whatever we lose in
obedience to Jesus will be repaid a thousand-fold in the city of
God. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile
you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice in that day and be glad, for great is your reward in
heaven" (Matthew 5:11–12). Your willingness to go outside the camp
is the measure of your treasure in heaven and your freedom from
treasure on earth.

The Bible and the newspaper make it plain that to be an
outspoken, evangelistic, socially engaged Christian in the years to
come is going to be increasingly dangerous. And brothers and
sisters, I want to be right in the thick of it with you. I see us
standing together against evil outside the camp. I see us winning
the lost from outside the camp. I see us, with all God's awakened
church, planting a church in every people by the year 2000. Let's
go outside the camp together.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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